Steven

And a small part of me just died inside due to that image On a possibly related topic, now that the Aurion is starting to fall into the hands of much younger blokes should we be far more accommodating when it comes to newbies at meets? Granted it will mean tolerating talk of such things like "stezzas" and "how much to turbo", but the larger meets are very nice and scaring away the new fellas might be hurting us in the long run.

Looks the goods. As with all updated brakes not noticing any around town difference is actually a good thing - but they'll come into their own once you get some heat through them

First of all welcome to the forums, nice to have another Aurion owner here. Regarding wheels, there is a fair bit on the forums here if you do a search, but also check out the Aurions in the Members Ride section - many many of us have aftermarket wheels. Further more a simple google image search of "Aurion Wheels" uncovered over 82000 images, most of which included Aurions with aftermarket wheels. With size, people have put 20s on their Aurion before any fitment doesn't appear to be an issue. 19s are a nice all round size for an Aurion, but most people (myself included) are happy enough with just 18s filling their guards. It's personal preference but don't be too concerned about fitment as the Aurion is a pretty easy car to deal with in that regard.

extremely long days and lack of sleep, coupled with the cold weather, is really making me anti-social at the meets. Think I might have to forgo work on Thursday's from now.

stfu excuses excuses. 2 weeks ago I was flying*. 1 week ago it was my dad's birthday**. And this week it's the bitches***. And yet I still make it to the meet! *around a corner on Nebo **it was actually, funny coincidence *** B)

With dragsters the smaller diameter wheel also helps with side wall pressure, but is a precise balance between side wall pressure and wheel torque - they put out so much torque that it's not uncommon for the wheel to spin INSIDE the tyre

Also remember your TRD is something special. It's rare, unique, and plenty of power. True there's more powerful cars out there, but you talk about having something else and being able to get power with only a few thousand, but how much have you actually put towards the TRDs power? With a piggyback ECU and a bit more boost you could dip into the mid 12s quite easily, and that's easily achievable with a few thousand if you wanted to go that way - plus it will also deliver almost the same economy you're getting now (try getting that from a Commodore V8).

First of all I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, you can never be too careful when buying a 2nd hand car especially through private sales as you have no warranty or cooling down period. You can try speaking to the seller but I'd say he knew of the troubles and would deny any knowledge should you confront him, and if you tried any legal avenues he could easily counterclaim that you could have done the damage driving it home (testing it out so to speak) Your only option is to either rid yourself of it or sell it on. $6800 for a 1991 starlet is a lot of dough for a very old car, especially one not in A1 condition, so my advice is to get rid of it and cut your losses rather than spend any money repairing it. If you do decide to repair it then you need to ring around to mechanics and/or engine rebuilders and speak to them about cost. Nobody here can give you an accurate quote of what to expect to pay for such a vehicle you need to make some phone calls yourself. Either way best of luck getting things sorted out.

I should be seeing George some time tomorrow, and he has already mentioned he has some new units available. Will post back with what I hear in the Headunit discussion thread.

I'll be selling my current sportivo rims with about 75% rubber in about a month for around $350 if you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCuASOAjKpo&feature=related

Not a huge saving on the RDA Golds, but very nice to have an offering from DBA now.

Yes I am holding it on start. So key it over to start and let it go? The old school ignition is not like our push-button ignition Steve. In the keyed ignition, the starter will only crank when the key is held on start. Could've sworn it was, but this is thinking back a long time to when I drove the standard sportivos around Mt Cotton so it sounds like my memory's a bit off (may have been the new Commodore or Falcon there that did it). If a new battery is worth trying, wouldn't it have the same effect (or better) to just try jumper cables first?

Changing rolling diameter is the same as altering the final drive ratio (to a degree), so this will have the affect DJKOR just mentioned in that as you've gone larger in diameter, you've essentially removed some of the "torque" from the equation meaning the car needs more effort to accelerate. The other issue is that as you've essentially changed your final drive ratio, the speedo will no longer be correct. The speedo will now read slower than your actual on road speed, meaning the car thinks you've actually travelled less distance for the fuel used.

Are you holding the key on "start" for that entire time? Try just flicking it to "start" and let go of it - the Aurion's ECU should keep trying to start the car for you.

next mod depends on my tax return and what other customising I can think of. A few things I'm thinking of - Finish ABS intake piping to replace factory snorkel - Larger rear brakes - Further exhaust mods - Wheels/better tyres - Leather stuff

Basically it's just the super-compressed matter of a collapsed star. Works best in Hydrogen cars but should go fine in the Aurion provided your retard your timing a bit to cope with the few extra billion octane and upgrade your suspension to fit the 500 tonne fuel tank. Good millage on the stuff too I hear, people have been reporting better than 0.000001L/100km. Trouble is like with E85 is finding a station that carries the stuff.

Can't see us doing it on a regular basis, but virtually any meet up/cruise/event that gets proposed with a bit of notice goes forward

Actually I was wrong about the RDA's warping. Spoke to a reputable brake specialist, he states that unless I banged it badly the disc is fine and the problem is most likely to be uneven pad material deposits on the brake rotor, especially since I had just finished bedding them in. His advice was that I should have left them for about 100km after bedding them in before trying Nebo. So now I have to give them a light rub down with non-metallic sandpaper before giving them another serious workout, and them give them another semi-bed in run.

Finally got my new brakes fitted today, which consist on Gen 3 Camry twin piston calipers on custom brackets, RX330 slotted Rotors from RDA, A1RM pads and TRW brake fluid. After breaking them in I took them up Nebo for a good thrashing, pleased to report I never once got any fade and got fantastic brake response all through UNTIL I suddenly got heavy vibrations through the car. Yep turns out the RDA rotors are the weakest link here and can't keep it together when the going gets tough. Very disappointed with that aspect but they came good once I gave the brakes time to cool. Overall I'm very happy with the upgrade but am considering changing to DBA 4000s as that's what I previously ran and I never had any problems with them warping under high temps.

The biggest bonus if they have a rear kit is a larger rotor that suits the handbrake set up on the Camry/Aurion (which is the same regardless of country). The rear brake doesn't do much true but it does pull it's weight in the TRDs. Further a larger rotor on the rear would contribute to better overall braking as it appears the Camry/Aurion brakes are front biased from factory. At the same time though I wonder just how much bigger rotor you can go in the back brakes considering they're only 10mm unvented. Seems like a recipe for warping if you go much larger. I think I'll drop them a line.

Sway Bar and Strut Bar first - cheap, easy to get and install and will make the car handle significantly better Tyres - importance of when to upgrade depends entirely on what you have on it at the moment. However my tyres have VERY poor grip and yet when driven hard they only affect me so much (in the dry). Suspension - Sportivo or TRD springs/shocks will make a very nice difference to your handling and compliment the sway bar combo well. Coilovers are available however might be overkill depending on what you want it for. So a search and make thorough use of the FAQ, there is plenty of information available to help you research and decide what best suits your needs.

"Gang" Definition: an organized group of workmen Hmmm, well we have been known to partake in some outdoor work on vehicles from time to time "Gang" alternative Definition: an association of criminals; "police tried to break up the gang"; "a pack of thieves" Police have frequented our location and couldn't pin a thing. Innocent until PROVEN guilty I always say. "Gang" alternative Definition: an informal body of friends; "he still hangs out with the same crowd" Pretty spot on I reckon "Gang" alternative Definition: act as an organized group Organized is such a strong word, especially for our habit of leaving things until the last minute at times "Gang" alternative Definition: tool consisting of a combination of implements arranged to work together A bunch of tools who work together. Scarily accurate I dare say

The sportivo bumper is no more than a standard ATX bumper with a sports "lip" attached to the lower half.

Yes I just did a quick search as well, very hard to understand the Taiwan web pages even with translator however you're spot on it seems like it's just a 26mm rotor. Andrew357 - True the Akebono calipers seem much smaller and not as well made as the PBR ones. I'm interested actually to see whether this mob makes a rear upgrade kit, even if it is just a caliper relocating set up.